


Build a Home

by InterstellarVagabond



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: A Story Told in Parts, AkuSai, F/F, Gen, M/M, Post-Canon, Sea Salt Family, leaisa, post kh3, sea salt trio
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-02-15 17:07:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18673906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InterstellarVagabond/pseuds/InterstellarVagabond
Summary: a collection of snippets looking into how Lea, Isa, Roxas, and Xion adjust to their new lives in Twilight Town.1. Routine2. Solitude3. Personalize4. Cursed5. Housewarming





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I might add more to this hence the open ended chapter marker, depends on inspiration and feedback!

  1. Routine



 

When Roxas came yawning out of his bedroom around ten, he was surprised to find the other occupants of the comfortable three bedroom apartment already awake and active. Well, active wasn’t quite the right word. If he had to use a word, Roxas would say ‘anxious.’

“Are you guys… cleaning?” he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and feeling slightly underdressed being the only one left in his pajamas.

“... yeah, I think we are,” Lea sighed, looking a little fed up with himself as he wiped down the coffee table. 

“... why?” Roxas asked.

They’d only just moved in, and Ansem (the wise not the evil apparently) had spared no expense in his atonement, giving them a perfect place to live. Almost too perfect, as Lea and Isa had spent a few minutes spluttering and huffing about the insinuation of three rather than four bedrooms. There was no way it was dirty yet. 

Roxas’s question was met with silence for a moment before Xion spoke up sheepishly.

“We… all woke up and came to the living room, you know, like before?” she said. “And… we just needed something to do.”

Roxas realized suddenly that he was the only one with the luxury of having recently enjoyed a vacation… of sorts. Even Lea, who had defected, had gone straight into keyblade training which was just a different reason to wake up at the crack of dawn and work yourself to death. He was the only one with a gap between the period in which he would wake up and stumble to the common room to get his mission and now.

“... alright, go back to bed,” Roxas said.

“You think I haven’t tried that?” Lea laughed, sticking his hands on his hips.

“Try harder,” Roxas said. “C’mon, seriously, go sleep in till noon.”

“Well, we better do as he says, he looks serious,” Isa sighed, abandoning his cleaning supplies to grab Lea. 

 

  1. Solitude



“What are you two still doing up?” Lea asked, as if he himself wasn’t also awake and grabbing beer and ice cream at one in the morning. He’d left the room, battling another night of insomnia, and had found Xion and Roxas camped out in the living room in front of the TV in what could only be a blanket fort in sorry state. 

“Sleepover,” Roxas explained poorly, clearly too focused on the movie to spare another syllable. 

“Neither of us could sleep, and we’ve never had one before,” Xion said. 

“Well that’s obvious,” Lea snorted. “You’re doing it so wrong.”

“What?” Roxas and Xion chimed up at once, both sounding offended.

“Hang on, wait right here,” Lea said, throwing out a hand and opening a dark corridor. He heard the sounds of youthful protest as Roxas and Xion got ready to scold him for breaking one of the “team light” rules.

“It’ll be like two seconds, I’ll be fine,” Lea insisted. “This tank top is black, it probably protects against darkness.”

“You’re an idiot!” Roxas yelled as Lea ducked into the portal. He was back quickly, though definitely not two seconds later, with plastic shopping bags in each hand.

“Rations!” he explained, upending the bags on the floor to reveal a dozen different kinds of junk food and energy drinks. “Now, to fix this… situation,” he added, gesturing to the sad drooping blanket fort. 

Roxas and Xion were more than happy to turn their attention and their sweet-tooths to the junk food while Lea grabbed some pins and rope and dug up memories decades old, rebuilding the blanket fort to a glory the teenagers could only have dreamed of. 

“Alright, we got the snacks, we got the fort, now how about the entertainment?” Lea said, taking a glance at the TV. “That doesn’t look like a horror movie to me, tsk tsk.”

“I couldn’t find any,” Xion said, right as Roxas said: “Please god no.”

“Don’t worry, anything he puts on will scare him into turning it off seconds later.”

The three sleepover guests looked up to see Isa standing just outside the hallway, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

“C’mon dude,” Lea whined.

“One time he begged me all week to take him to see  _ Bloody Dawn _ and then he spent the whole movie crying into my shoulder,” Isa said smugly.

“I had allergies!” Lea said. “The screen was too bright, I had to give my eyes a break!”

“Aw, I kinda wanna watch a horror movie,” Xion said. 

“Well… if Axel’s scared…” Roxas said, not at all scared himself of course.

“Hey, stick up for yourself punk, I’m not your way out,” Lea replied, flicking Roxas on the side of the head.

“You know, Lea,” Isa said with a smirk. “When we went back to Radiant Garden to check on our old stuff, I think I found a copy of  _ The Almost Dead.  _ That one’s a classic, they’ve got to see it, right?”

“Y-yeah, right,” Lea said.

“Oh! Let’s watch it!”  Xion cheered.

“I’ll grab it,” Isa replied. “Make room in that fort for one more.”

As the movie played, Xion and Roxas spellbound by the screen for two completely different reasons, Lea hid his face in the crook of Isa’s neck and swore.

“I hate you. Why are you even awake?” he asked.

“Same reason as you three, I guess,” Isa said, chuckling at Lea’s breath tickling his skin. “I was lonely.”

 

  1. Personalize



“Your rooms look like prison cells, you gotta do something,” Lea insisted, flipping another pancake. Isa was still struggling with the coffee machine in a sleepy daze, and Roxas and Xion were sitting at the table awaiting breakfast.

“I know,” Roxas said. “I’ve been trying to find stuff like I had in the simulated Twilight Town. Apparently all those things are out of style now.”

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that,” Lea said. “You gotta stop dressing like you live a decade in the past.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my clothes!” Roxas argued.

“I don’t really know how to decorate,” Xion said. 

“Well, we’ll figure that out when we go shopping,” Lea said.

They did of course, figure it out as they shopped. Roxas once again proved how bad his taste was, while Xion picked out fairy lights and a large glass jar she intended to fill with seashells. In the end Lea would describe Xion’s bedroom as “cutesy elegant punk” and Roxas’s as “angsty garbage antique.” Roxas and Xion however, would describe them only as “home.”

Roxas enjoyed collapsing into a bean bag chair at the end of the day, and scrawling out different doodles, messages, and designs on the wall he’d coated in chalkboard paint. Xion made her bed as plush as possible, opposing the organization’s slab she was used to, covering it in stuffed animals and a fluffy comforter. She also took dozens of pictures and printed them out, displaying them in frames all around the room and tacking them up on the walls.

“Now all that’s left is your room,” Roxas teased Lea one day. 

“Adults don’t decorate their room,” Isa said helpfully, as Lea struggled to come up with an excuse to not have to actually do things that day.

“Sounds like an excuse to me,” Xion replied, immediately hitting the truth of the matter.

Isa and Lea spluttered and made excuses, but eventually they did make an effort to remember what exactly their tastes were. By the end of the week, they had covered their ceiling with glow in the dark stars and planets.

 

  1. Cursed



The sound of smashing woke Isa, sending him lurching upright to a familiar aura that set his blood on fire and made his heart pound with exhilaration and fear. For a moment he saw all in red, then his vision cleared and he heard another bang. 

“...mmmwha?” Lea was slow to wake, confused by the sound and by Isa throwing back the covers and leaping from the bed. He went to Xion’s room without a second thought, tearing open the door and standing in a sort of calm horror at the scene before him.

Xion, in a berserker rage, was destroying her room. 

Lea and Roxa were quick to follow Isa, he could hear them gasping and calling out for Xion behind him. Isa was quick to close the door on them, keeping them out of the room. He took a deep breath, calming his emotions. He couldn’t afford to feel right now.

If he saw the shredded posters and stuffed animals, smashed CD player and bedframe, all the destroyed things that Xion had carefully picked out and assigned value to with a big smile, he would feel his heart break. If his heart broke, he would become susceptible to the overwhelming aura of fury in the air, he would succumb and rage on with her. 

Xion was mindless, screaming as red magic streamed for her eyes, destroying anything near her. Isa slowly made his way over to her, fighting the aura that pushed him back.

“Xion, I’m sorry,” he said. “This is my fault.”

They’d fought together, she’d assimilated his abilities. Isa couldn’t count the number of nights he’d woken as Saix, young and new to his magic, in a rage and destroying everything in sight. What he remembered is that the rage rarely came from anger, it normally came from fear, sadness, any emotion too strong to be felt. 

God knows Xion had enough of that.

Xion practically growled as Isa approached, wary and ready to attack. Isa kept moving, and put a hand on her shoulder.

Xion immediately summoned her keyblade, and Isa made no move to stop her as she slashed his shoulder. If he pulled a weapon of his own to defend himself she would only fight harder. He winced, and took advantage of her sudden distraction to pull her in and hold her tight in his arms.

She struggled for awhile, as Isa shushed her and kept her from lashing out and hurting herself or destroying anything else. Being this close to the aura was almost unbearable, but he powered through as Xion’s roars become sobs. He felt small hands clutching at his shirt, as Xion leaned forward and cried against his shoulder. 

“You’re safe, it’s done now,” Isa reassured her. 

He was dimly aware of the door to the bedroom opening, of worried hands on him and Xion. He ignored the attempts, and lifted Xion, carrying her back to her bed. She was out like a light, no doubt recovering the massive amount of spent energy it takes to enter the berserker rage. Isa was halfway there before he reconsidered. The bed was half destroyed, and the room was totaled. Xion shouldn’t have to wake up and have the first thing she saw be the things she loved that she had destroyed. 

There was nothing more terrifying than waking up in the aftermath of your own actions, nothing more heartbreaking than seeing what you’d destroyed.

“Lea, let’s sleep in the living room tonight, okay?” he said.

“Yeah, of course,” Lea answered. “But let me look at that shoulder first, huh?”

Once Xion was tucked into their bed, Lea and Isa moved to the living room where a combination of healing magic and the overused first aid kit helped repair Isa’s shoulder. 

 

  1. Housewarming



“I don’t want to,” Roxas groaned, doing a half-hearted job of clearing personal items out of the living room. “Where are we gonna put all these people anyway?”

“If it gets too crowded we’ll just go to the patio outside,” Isa said.

“So we gotta clean the patio too?” Roxas asked, thinking about the emptied out flowerpot filled with ice cream sticks sitting by the door. “Xion, please tell me you’ll isolate in my room with me.”

“Actually, I was kind of hoping to see some people,” Xion said, helping Isa fold laundry on the couch.

“See Naminé, you mean,” Lea teased, making kissy faces over the counter that seperated the living room from the kitchen. Xion blushed, and tossed a pair of balled up socks at Lea with devastating precision.

“I also want to see Riku and Aqua again,” she said defensively. “They promised to show me some new techniques.”

“You’re going to do keyblade training at a party?” Roxas asked in disbelief. 

“Not all of us can just wake up one day as dual-wield masters,” Lea pointed out.

“She literally can,” Roxas reminded him. 

“Which is why it’s fun learning it the normal way,” Xion said. “And I want to spar with Riku. It’s about time I kicked his ass.”

“... okay suddenly I’m interested in this party,” Roxas said slyly, as the petty grudges of teenagers earned a laugh across the board. 

Xion did get a chance to spar with Riku as it turned out, in a battle that probably had everyone in Twilight Town nervous as surges of magic were seen over the rooftops. Though they had to call it a draw when the pizza arrived, Riku insisted Xion had won.

Aqua, Terra, Isa, and Lea broke out the booze for a well deserved break. Ventus made an attempt to point out that technically he was twenty-six, and should be allowed to join them, but Aqua scolded him back to the kid’s table before long. Funnily enough, she offered Riku a drink and was stunned when he reminded her that he was only eighteen. She spent the next ten minutes in a stunned sort of shame, questioning her judgement and memory while Riku sheepishly put up with Kairi’s laughing. 

“So, Lea and Isa are lame now, huh?” Ventus joked. 

“Bold of you to assume they were ever cool,” Roxas replied, earning a laugh. “What were they like at our age?”

“Pretty much the same,” Ventus said. “Isa was less… uh…”

“He had less of a stick up his ass?” Roxas volunteered. 

“Yeah,” Ventus chuckled nervously.

“... so,” Roxas said, clearing his throat and gesturing at his and Ventus’s clothes. “You don’t think we look… out of style, right?”

“These clothes are awesome!” Ventus insisted. “They’re classic! They’re cool!”

“Thank you!” Roxas cried, vindicated. He had been weirded out by his sort-of-twin for the first bit, but now he found their similar tastes really came in handy.

“Hey, have either of you guys seen Naminé?” Kairi asked, approaching the two of them. 

“Nope,” Roxas lied, folding his arms over his chest. He knew damn well her and Xion were watching the sunset over on the clocktower. No doubt by now Naminé was sketching Xion who was trying not to blush, and both of them were in a panic about whether or not it was okay to hold hands. They’d need all the time they could get to reach that point, so Roxas felt it was his duty to play wingman.

At the end of the night, Lea and Aqua were still drunkenly and excitedly talking to each other, apparently best friends. Kairi sat nearby them, having already received a bit of a pep talk when they had both still been sober enough to breach the Sora issue. She listened in with a smile as the older two talked. Riku was starting up the gummi ship for the carpool home, and Ventus and Roxas were playing video games in Roxas’s room. That just left Terra and Isa to clean up, in a sort of awkward silence.

“... I wanted to tell you, I don’t really remember it,” Terra said suddenly. They were in the kitchen, tying up garbage bags and loading dishes into the sink. Isa nodded silently, before speaking.

“That’s good,” he said. “I wish we all had that option.”

“I mean…” Terra sighed. “I’m still sorry for whatever he did. That… amalgamation of me and Xehanort.”

“It wasn’t so bad,” Isa said. “Xemnas is quite possibly the best boss I’ve ever had and… that is… horrifying, actually. I really need a new job.”

Terra laughed, and nodded in agreement. “Still plenty of keyblades to pass down. You could..”

“No, I’ll leave that to the rest of you, I think,” Isa said. “I’m happy with what I have now.”

Terra watched as Xion and Naminé tried to sneak in through the front door, at Roxas and Ventus taking a break from games to grab more pizza, at Lea and Aqua laughing on the patio.

“Yeah, seems like you’ve got a good deal here,” he said.

“I do,” Isa agreed with a soft smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 6\. Role Model  
> 7\. Fading  
> 8\. Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so guess I'm adding more to this, and now I gotta stick with this numbered stories thing I did which is kinda weird now that there's multiple chapters but whatever lmaoooo

 

  1. Role Model



 

“Okay, go ahead and numb it with ice, it’ll still sting a bit but just for a second,” Lea said, a flame burning at the point of his fingertip which he ran up and down the length of a small needle. Xion sat on the sink counter, pressing an ice cube to her earlobe while Roxas watched from his seat on the side of the tub.

“Can you do two in each?” Xion asked. “Like Olette has?”

“Let’s start with one each and give ‘em time to heal first,” Lea said. “Okay, stay still…”

“What exactly are you doing?”

Isa, ever the exhausted voice of reason, interrupted the scene as he leaned into the bathroom. Roxas took that moment to shoot Lea and Xion a glance that clearly said ‘you’re on your own’ before pulling out his phone and avoiding eye contact with the entire scene.

“Ear piercing, what’s it look like?” Lea said with a shrug.

“Okay, maybe I should rephrase,” Isa said with a sigh. “ _Why_ are you piercing Xion’s ears? Here in our bathroom? With a sewing needle?”

“Because it costs 200 munny at the mall, and they use a piercing gun,” Lea said. “Trust me, this is much better.”

“Do you remember the time you pierced our ears?” Isa stuck an accusatory finger in Lea’s face. “And you bled for five minutes and then got an infection right after?”

“And I’ve learned and grown from the experience!” Lea insisted, clearing his throat sheepishly. “Did I or did I not fix it later, huh?”

“Fine, do whatever you want,” Isa said. “But honestly… I’m honestly surprised you can do this.”

“What are you talking about?” Lea huffed.

“Oh nothing,” Isa said. “Just… you know how bad it hurts… I figured you’d never be able to do something to hurt Xion, cool piercings or not.”

“... is he forgetting those times you guys fought each other or…?” Roxas whispered in an aside to Xion.

“It’ll only hurt for a second! And it’s totally safe!” Lea argued. “Give me some space already!”

“Alright,” Isa said, raising his hands in a gesture of defeat and stepping back. Lea sighed, grabbing the cork from the sink counter and placing it on the other side of Xion’s ear. He lined the needle up with the mark he’d made in sharpie and then…

“...” Lea hesitated a moment.

“Is there a problem?” Isa asked with a smirk.

“Do it!” Xion said. “I’m ready!”

“...” Lea tried to steady his hand.

“C’mon!” Xion said.

Lea finally groaned and lowered his hands, shooting a glare at Isa. “I can’t do it.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I think you’re making the right decision.” Isa’s smirk grew as Lea set aside his piercing tools. He pressed a kiss to Lea’s cheek as he pouted.

“Roxas, you’re up,” Xion said. “I need someone who’s not a coward.”

“Okay, but then you gotta do mine,” Roxas replied, setting down his phone and reaching for the needle.

“No!” Lea shouted, grabbing it before Roxas could and holding it out of reach. “I was wrong this is a bad idea!”

While Lea was able to use his height to his advantage at that moment, neither Lea nor Isa were awake when Xion and Roxas snuck back to the bathroom sometime around two in the morning to finish the job.

 

  1. Fading



Lea held out a hand experimentally, and watched as faint traces of darkness danced around his fingertips before spluttering out. He narrowed his eyes at it, like he wasn’t sure what to make of the situation.

“Why do you still try?” Isa asked with a frown.

They were in their room, Isa sitting in bed and Lea standing nearby. The dim light played over their features, adding shadows around Lea’s eyes that Isa would rather not see. They looked too similar to the shadows of their past.

“I dunno.” Lea shrugged. “I know it’s dumb but… hey it was helpful for getting around, and it’s familiar… you know?”

“... what if you did manage to make another portal, but then couldn’t open the doorway on the other side?” Isa said. “You’d be trapped there, the darkness would destroy you.”

“I’m not gonna do anything stupid,” Lea sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Oh, really? That’s a first,” Isa teased halfheartedly. Lea chuckled and slid into the bed next to Isa, snaking his arms around his waist and kissing his temple.

“You can’t fool me, I know you’re worried,” he said. “That’s why I told you I’m not going to do anything stupid. I’m promising you.”

“... I know,” Isa said, putting a hand on Lea’s arm.

“I guess… I’m just a little sad, you know?” Lea said. “I mean it’s a good thing, the darkness fading out of us, but I’m so used to it that it’s making me feel… kinda emptied out.”

“It’s good to be rid of it,” Isa said. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror across the room. Everyday he expected to see golden eyes staring back at him. “It worries me that Roxas and Xion can still access it so easily.”

“So can Riku you know, and he seems fine,” Lea said. “Just cause our experience was less than ideal doesn’t mean theirs has to be.”

“Hmnh,” Isa remarked noncommittally.

“... if you want, I could ask Riku to… talk to them about it? Give ‘em a sort of lesson on balancing it out,” Lea said. “Roxas will hate that…”

“I suppose I should trust them,” Isa sighed, “and you.”

“Well, that might be going a little too far,” Lea joked. “Maybe keep an eye on me, just a little.”

Isa snorted, as Lea reached over to the bedside lamp to turn off the light. The pair made themselves comfortable in bed and in each others arms, taking care to toss long locks of hair out of the way in a futile attempt to prevent them from ending up in each others faces in the morning. While Lea fell asleep quickly, Isa sat awake awhile longer. He listened to Lea take slow even breaths in the dark, as he untangled one hand and stretched it out. He waited a moment, and as nothing happened he sighed in relief.

 

  1.  Nightmares



Roxas was running.

He was running even as his lungs burned and his legs ached, reaching out as a figure in the distance walked away from him. No matter how fast he ran she was always ahead of him, walking as slowly as ever like it was no effort at all staying out of reach.

“Xion, wait!” he cried out.

Xion turned, and waited with a neutral expression as Roxas caught up. He doubled over, catching his breath for a moment, and when he righted himself to speak he felt a cold sharp pain as a keyblade stabbed him right through.

“W...what?” Roxas coughed, tasting iron. He looked up at Xion, only to see Axel standing there holding the keyblade that had stabbed him. Axel’s neutral face twisted into a cold smirk, his eyes lifeless and empty. When had he ever seen Axel look that way? There was a castle… no that wasn’t him who saw that.

Axel pulled the keyblade back, and Roxas gasped and fell. Pain wracked his entire body as he tried to crawl away. Inch by inch he pulled himself in the dark featureless space he found himself in, until he came to someone’s shoes. He looked up, and reached up.

“Sora, help,” he pleaded.

Sora just looked down at him in disgust, and when Roxas tried to see why he realized the hand he was stretching out was nothing but a white tendril, the arm of a dusk. He looked at himself, and saw nothing but a Nobody.

 

Roxas lurched upwards in bed, gasping for breath and in the grasp of a cold sweat. It took several minutes for him to even out his breathing and slow his thoughts. He realized one of his hands was grasping at his chest, fingers clawed into his shirt in a death grip. He shook his head.

“This is so dumb…” he sighed.

Checking the clock he was dismayed to see the time was only about thirty minutes past his last attempt to sleep. It had been this way for much longer than he would have liked, his sleep disrupted by these nightmares. He was starting to look like his old self, zombiefied and everything. He managed a chuckle at that, wondering if Lea would joke about it like he used to.

A knock on his door pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Come in,” he said, his voice cracking a little.

Xion opened the door, walking in with a pillow clenched tight in her arms. She walked silently over to the bed and took a seat just on the edge.

“You too, right?” she asked finally, meeting Roxas’s eyes. Her dark circles mirrored his own, just like they always mirrored each other.

“... yeah,” Roxas sighed.

Xion sighed as well, and then set her pillow aside.

“You wanna go get some air?” she asked.

 

Ten minutes later they were dressed and quietly leaving the apartment. They started down the street, heading closer to the center of town. The 24/7 convenience store didn’t have sea salt ice cream, but they did have pints of brownie bash which was almost as good in their opinion.

“What was it like in that virtual world?” Xion asked as they sat atop the clocktower, legs dangling down over the edge.

“Well it beat running missions for the organization,” Roxas said, “for a little while anyway. Then Axel kinda fucked it all up. Not his fault though, not like the other team had my best interests at heart like he did.”

“I can’t imagine a normal life,” Xion said. “I mean I suppose that’s what we have now but…”

“It’s kinda too late, right?” Roxas said. “Hard to have a normal life when you can’t forget the old one. Got it memorized?”

Xion laughed as Roxas put a finger to his templed in an exaggerated impersonation.

“God, we’re going to get older,” Xion said. “We’re going to grow up and… do things. I never really planned for the future, I just always thought I’d be with the organization.”

“Me too,” Roxas said. “Man, now I have to decide things about my life? That kinda sucks.”

“Be serious!” Xion said, laughing despite herself as Roxas bemoaned the tragedies of a normal life.

“Well, I always figured you’d go into being a master,” Roxas said. “You spend so much time with Aqua and the rest, you’re going for the mark of mastery right?”

“I don’t know,” Xion said. “It’s one option. What about you? Got any plans?”

Roxas looked out at the slowly rising sun, and took a bite of his ice cream.

“I think I’m gonna take a break,” he said.

“A break?” Xion asked.

“Don’t sound so surprised!” Roxas huffed.

“Sorry, I’m just remembering that time we had a vacation,” Xion giggled behind one hand, “and you just wandered around looking lost half the day. Then we found you right up here like you did everyday anyway.”

“I’m getting better at doing nothing!” Roxas said. “Lea’s influence, of course. I dunno, I just think it’d be nice to have a break for awhile, not plan the future just let it happen. We’ve done a lot you know?”

“Yeah,” Xion agreed. “A break sounds nice.”

Suddenly their phones started ringing, and as they checked them they both saw one of the two others of their household calling.

“Worrywarts,” Roxas laughed. “What’s Lea even doing up this early?”

“I think they get nightmares too,” Xion said. “Well, better not give them anything else to panic about. Let’s get back.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Roxas chuckled. “Jeez, they think they’re our dads or something.”

“But they’d be hopeless without us,” Xion said.

The two teenagers made their way back home, where after some concerned questioning, they made their way to Roxas’s room where they collapsed into bed and caught up on some well needed sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 9\. Girl Talk  
> 10\. The Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to jelly-bean-machine for the ideas that inspired 9. Girl Talk!  
> as for 10... I had an idea and just ran with it and now I'm kind of emotional aa;lsdfj I hope I succeeded in making it as emotional as it felt

 

  1. Girl Talk



Xion sat on the edge of her bed, holding in her hands a plush meow-wow with buttons for eyes. She’d been staring at it for some time now. She gave it a gentle squeeze, feeling the generous stuffing in the lovingly hand-stitched toy.

_ “I heard you were having nightmares,” Naminé said. “Riku told me about dream-eaters, and how they get rid of nightmares. It’s probably silly, but I thought if I made one for you it would keep you safe in your dreams!” _

Xion’s face flushed bright red as she pressed the meow-wow to her face as if to hide it.

“Xion?” 

Xion froze as Lea leaned into the room, rapping his knuckles on the doorway. 

“You wanna make a Taco Bell run? Isa’s being lame and Roxas is out wi-” Lea paused, taking in the sight of his friend holding a stuffed animal against her bright red face. “... uh… you okay, kiddo?”

“Lea,” Xion set the plushie aside, speaking in a tone of voice Lea recognized as the “ask Axel deep questions about life he doesn’t really know the answer to so he has to bullshit” tone of voice. “... how do you talk to girls?”

“Ooooh…” Lea laughed, running a hand through his hair. “Kinda asking the wrong guy for that.”

“Oh, okay,” Xion sighed, looking down in defeat.

“I mean, flirting’s not really a gendered thing though,” Lea said, taking a seat next to her. “Just like… compliment her hair and show her how good you are at fighting, right?”

“Does that… really work?” Xion asked doubtfully.

“Sometimes,” Lea said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Like half the time at least. If that doesn’t work you could try just finding excuses to spend time with her. Like, point out movies that are showing soon or offer to get her an ice cream. Then you have plenty of time to figure out what to say while you hang out.”

“I never figure out what to say,” Xion sighed. “I spend tons of time with her! And we have really great conversations, but I never know what to say.”

“Well, how do you feel about her?” Lea prompted. “Just toss out some feelings, don’t worry about sticking them in the right order or making sense.”

“She’s… really brave,” Xion said. “And caring. She’s creative and she makes things all the time! I’m so used to fighting and breaking things, but she makes things so carefully! When I’m with her I can’t think and my heart beats really fast.”

“Woof, you’ve got it bad,” Lea teased, ruffling Xion’s hair. “Just tell her that stuff. If she hears that you value those things about her, that you took the time to get to know her like that and that you enjoy being around her, she’ll understand what you mean.”

“Well, she might.”

Xion and Lea looked up to where Isa was now standing in the doorway. 

“Some people don’t understand the first few times you confess,” he said with a smirk, before ducking out again.

“Hey!” Lea shouted, blushing a little. “You weren’t exactly Mr. Crystal clear communication!”

Xion giggled, and because her laugh was always infectious Lea laughed too. Then he spoke again.

“Just don’t stress it, okay?” he said. “You got plenty of time for romance and love and all that. Just have fun and be with people who make you happy, alright?”

“Yeah, I will,” Xion said with a nod. “Thanks, Lea.”

Lea was suddenly startled when she leaned over and hugged him quickly. He still wasn’t quite used to that, still went through a couples years worth of guilt, relief, and warmth everytime he remembered that Xion and Roxas were not only safe but still wanted to be friends with him after everything he’d done. He returned the hug awkwardly at first, and then sank into it more naturally. 

“If I get rejected, ice cream is on you, right?” Xion said when she pulled away, grinning. 

“Ice creams on me whether you get rejected or get the girl,” Lea said. “It’s always a good time for ice cream.”

“Three am is not a good time for ice cream!” Isa called from wherever he happened to be eavesdropping. 

“Yeah, you really sure you wanna do this whole dating thing?” Lea pretended to whisper but clearly said loud enough for Isa to hear. “It can be such a pain.”

Xion laughed, but was startled out of her laughter when her phone buzzed on the nearby nightstand. She picked it up and her eyes grew wide as she read the text.

“She wants to hang out!” she said. “I… I’m gonna go try to talk to her.”

“Good luck, kid,” Lea said. “Hey, if all else fails, go for the yawn and stretch! Works everytime!”

“Don’t do that,” Isa shouted. “It never works.”

“Will you let me have a fucking conversation, please?” Lea shot back. Xion ignored the playful bickering, too busy grabbing her things and rushing for the door. She had a date to get to

 

  1. The Past



Lea knew how to move without being seen. 

It was one of the first things they taught you in the organization, how to explore without ever being discovered. Nobodies weren’t supposed to exist, so they couldn’t show their faces. Xemnas had bigger plans for them, plans that involved them hiding in the shadows.

So it was easy for Lea to slip past the citizens of Radiant Garden without them even catching a glimpse of his face. He recognized a few, but much fewer than he would have liked. 

Radiant Garden had been destroyed and then brought back, and since then become a hub for travelers from all over. It made sense that most of the people he once knew would be gone, replaced by new ones. Still, he was relieved every time he saw a familiar face, made a little less familiar by the passage of time.

He could have waved, stopped and said hello to friends he hadn’t caused trouble with in ages, but he didn’t. He was saving his strength for something, he couldn’t use it all up on too many tearful reunions. 

The house was right where he remembered, and for a second he laughed at himself for thinking it might have moved. He stood a few feet away, like he was waiting. He tried to make his heart stop pounding, but that was the problem with having a heart. Well, that kind of heart, not the kind that was giving him chest pains but the kind that was giving him the emotions swirling around in his head. Now that he could feel again, his body could collapse under those feelings once more. He could have panic attacks, cry, and shake. 

He took a deep breath, and one step forward. Then, at that moment the door to the house opened and he lost his nerve.

He lifted the hood of his jacket with a quiet sound of alarm escaping his lips, as he ducked back into the shadows. 

“Yeah, I’ll see you next time!” 

The woman who stepped out of the house was on the older side, short and broad but with a hint of muscle in her arms. Her hair was tinged with gray here and there, but still there persisted a fiery, bright, red. 

She waved off her guest, making some idle small talk the way friends sometimes do when they’re too chatty to say goodbye properly. The whole time Lea watched from the corner of his eyes, keeping his face turned away as he tried to blink back tears. 

“You just call me if you need help again, okay?” the woman at the door said with a smile. “I’m sure it won’t be long until then, right?” she teased her friend with a playful smirk. Then they said their final goodbyes, and she went back into the house, closing the door.

Lea stood frozen for a moment, before swearing. He found the nearest wall and slammed his fist into it, regretting it immediately and shaking his hand in pain. When the pain subsided a little he shook his head.

“You coward…” he said to himself. 

“Who’s a coward?”

Lea sighed. Of course Roxas and Xion found him. 

“What?” he pretended to be surprised. “What are you two doing here? I thought you were keeping the computer company!”

“His name is Tron,” Xion reminded him. “And when we were done visiting him we noticed you were missing.”

“Who was that?” Roxas asked, standing on his tip-toes to peer over Lea’s shoulder.

“Nobody!” Lea said, making the universal pushing gesture of ‘move, get out of here.’ “Don’t worry about it.”

“She looked nice,” Xion said.

“She is nice!” Lea huffed. “But it’s none of your business!”

“Oh, she’s coming back out!” Roxas said, and Lea panicked, practically hiding behind them in his hurry to get his face out of view. Roxas, having successfully played Lea like a fiddle, smirked and tapped his foot expectantly. 

“Doesn’t seem like nobody to me,” he said. “Seems to me you’re scared.”

“Yeah, I’m scared, okay!” Lea said, keeping his voice quiet despite the force he put behind his words. “I just… I’m not doing this today. I can’t do this today.”

“What is it, Lea?” Xion asked, looking up at him and damn those puppy dog eyes the pair of them could do. “You can talk to us.”

“...” Lea sighed. “I just… I don’t really deserve… to see the people from my old life again, you know? Not in a way that matters anyway. This is what I get. I get to look in the window and remember and that’s all I deserve.”

At some point he’d balled his hands into fists, and a tear had slipped down his cheek. Roxas and Xion shared a concerned look, and then they each took one of Lea’s hands. 

“You always talk about all the bad things you’ve done,” Roxas said, shaking his head.

“And then you leave out all the good things you did!” Xion said.

“We all did bad things, I bet even Sora did something he regretted once,” Roxas said. “But what we did to make it right is what matters. You made things right.”

“You looked out for me and Roxas when we didn’t have anybody!” Xion reminded him. “And you tried your hardest to find us and bring us home again.”

“Well, you two did that on your own,” Lea said. “Seriously, you were so impatient. I was almost there.”

“You’re deflecting,” Roxas said with a fond smile. 

Lea huffed, folding his arms over his chest. 

“You’re not a Nobody anymore,” Xion said. “So why are you still living like one?”

Lea looked down at the two teenagers, and he couldn’t argue with them. He didn’t have a good enough argument all he had was the desperate urge to run away while he still could. 

“And we’ll stay with you!” Roxas said. “If you want us, I mean.”

“I’m sure he will,” Xion said. “He’s useless without us.”

“Aw, come on,” Lea chuckled. “... yeah, okay. Let’s… let’s do this.”

The three approached the door, and Lea knocked. He twisted his fingers nervously as they waited, and after a beat he went to walk away but Xion and Roxas stood in his way with fierce glares to make him stay put. He shrugged as if to say ‘can’t blame me for trying’ just as the door opened. 

“Mirrie, I swear if you forgot your wallet again,” the woman said as she stepped outside, her words dying in her mouth as she took in the tall stranger standing outside her door. Lea waited a minute, his stomach feeling like it was getting tied in knots. It had been too long, too many years had shaped him into an adult she wouldn’t recognize, a battle scarred man that had no place here anymore.

“... Lea?” the woman breathed, reaching out hesitantly like she expected Lea to dissolve into the air if she took his arm too fast. 

Lea practically choked on the tears that came to his eyes. He took a deep breath and made himself speak.

“Uh… hi, mom.”

She took a moment to lift a hand to Lea’s face, and he found himself leaning slightly into the touch. Then she surprised Lea by yanking him down to her height and into a hug. 

“I’m sorry,” Lea cried, his head tucked against her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t do that,” she scolded him tearfully. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”

“I dunno about that,” Lea said. 

“Did you set something on fire again?” his mom asked, pulling away and fixing him with a playful grin.

“One or two things, yeah.” Lea grinned right back. 

“I thought… I thought you died with the rest of them,” his mom said. 

“None of us really died… technically,” Lea said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s… it’s kind of a long story…”

Lea’s mom peeked around him to where Xion and Roxas were watching the exchange with rapt eyes. “Looks like it,” she said. “Well… get your ass in here already, I’ve got about a decade of mothering to do to you and you have some explaining to do.”

“Yes, mom,” Lea laughed. 

As they walked inside, Lea paused to put a hand on Roxas and Xion’s shoulders. He sighed deeply before speaking.

“Thanks, guys,” he said.

“That’s what family does,” Roxas said, and Xion nodded her agreement. 

“Well? Are you three just going to whisper in the doorway?” Lea’s mom called from the living room. “Get in here and introduce yourselves, oh, and help yourselves to anything in the kitchen it’s all junk so I’m sure you’ll love it.”

Roxas and Xion laughed at the clear similarities between this woman and their friend, before following Lea into the house. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 11\. Struggle!!!!  
> 12\. Dusklings  
> 13\. Stay Away From Those Kids

  1. Struggle!!!!



“I never actually won the struggle.”

The realization came to Roxas at breakfast, prompted by a text from Hayner he had received earlier demanding they practice together.

“That’s a real thing?” Lea laughed. He was leaning against the counter, still in plaid pajamas pants and a black tank top with a cartoon dragon on the front, drinking his first of many coffees for the day. “I thought Ansem just threw that in there, you’re telling me that a bunch of kids get together to beat the shit out of each other and everyone in town comes to watch?”

“There wasn’t always movies and restaurants to keep people entertained,” Roxas said with a shrug, pushing cereal around absentmindedly with his spoon. 

“Man, I grew up in the wrong town,” Lea said, elbowing Isa as he passed by. “Can you imagine if I got a trophy for getting into fights?”

“You have to win to get the trophy.” Isa smirked.

Lea retaliated by way of rolling his eyes and poking Isa in the side before swooping in for a kiss. 

“I can’t win it this year either,” Roxas said.

“Sure you could,” Lea said, sipping his coffee. “With your skills you’d kill.”

“That’s exactly the problem,” Roxas said, turning to Lea with worried eyes. 

“Oh…” Lea chuckled nervously. “Well… shit.”

“That would kinda be a problem,” Xion said, entering the room and the conversation with  yawn. 

 

Roxas had to explain this to Hayner later when he showed up to help him practice. 

“Oh dude… that’s so unfair!” Hayner shouted, leaping off the dusty couch they’d dragged into the usual spot forever ago. “But we were gonna enter together!”

“It’s too bad Roxas is basically five feet of unlimited power,” Pence said.

“Five foot four,” Roxas corrected him petulantly. 

“Hang on…” Olette said. “This might not actually be a problem.”

“What are you talking about?” Hayner huffed. “Roxas can’t fight in the Struggle, that’s a huge problem!”

“Well, Roxas isn’t the only one we know with tons of power, right?” Olette said. “I’d say between his friends here in town and the ones in other worlds, we have enough people for a whole other Struggle, right?”

“Whoa… Super Struggle…” Pence gasped. 

“Oh my god that is the most kickass thing I have ever heard,” Hayner said. “We have to do it.”

“Huh,” Roxas said, “I could probably make that happen…”

“Don’t just think about it!” Hayner shouted. “Get on your phone and text your kickass friends right now!”

Several groupchats and video calls later, Roxas had sold the idea. Now all that remained was for Hayner and the others to sell the idea to the Struggle officiator. That took less work than they thought, as the idea had “munny” written all over it. The officiator had to convince a few zoning officials but in the end Super Struggle was a go. 

The day of the event off-worlders arrived much to the amazement of the Twilight Town locals. Aqua actually ended up making flustered conversation with several admirers who saw her descend from her keyblade ship and remove her armor with a flash of light. A few minutes and a few scribbled phone numbers later, she was helping Olette with her form.

“Keep your elbow up, like that,” she said with a smile, adjusting Olette’s posture. It was her first year in the struggle, and Aqua’s advice seemed to be giving her confidence. 

“So, they go first then we’re up?” Riku asked.

“Yeah,” Roxas said. “You ready for our rematch?”

“Sure, I’m ready.” Riku grinned. “I mean, if you make it past Kairi, that is.”

“And if you make it past Xion,” Roxas shot right back with a smirk.

“Doesn’t matter,” Lea said, clapping them both on the shoulder. “Cause neither of you are getting past me!”

“Really, Lea?” Roxas turned a pair of puppy dog eyes up at his friend. “After all those times you tried to kill me… you’re not even gonna try to hold back here?”

“T-that’s cheating!” Lea stammered, as Roxas stuck out his tongue.

The official Struggle went on with all the usual excitement, but once it was over the audience was practically buzzing with anticipation. Seeing Terra and Ventus step onto the field with their keyblades put a hush over the crowd. 

“Good luck you two!” Aqua cheered, waving to her friends.

“You can’t wish us both luck!” Terra teased. “That’s not how it works, pick a side!”

“Then I pick Ven,” Aqua replied with a grin and a nod. “Good luck, Ven!”

“Ready?” the referee asked, seeming to sweat considerably as he stood between two keyblade wielders. “... struggle!”

The Super Struggle, as it turns out, was aptly named.

Thanks to barrier magic set up by Aqua and Mickey, no one was harmed by the chaos of Terra and Ventus’s fight, but it was clear how much power was on the field. The audience roared with excitement, favorites were picked quickly as they chose which side to root for. 

“The winner!” the referee shouted, gesturing to Ventus. 

“Damn…” Terra panted, grinning proudly, as he used his keyblade to push himself back to his feet. “Well, I did go easy on you.”

“Oh, really?” Ventus grinned. “Maybe you’re just out of practice,  _ Master Terra. _ ”

Ventus may have won the fight but he lost the noogie battle that ensued. 

Next up was Lea and Aqua. There was a great deal of swooning as the pair of them took the field. 

“I’m just warning you, but I’ve been practicing,” Lea said, casually spinning his keyblade. “I’d reckon I could take on a master at this point.”

“Overconfidence is dangerous,” Aqua said, her body flowing into a ready stance with grace. “But I’m sure you’ll learn that by the time I’m done with you.”

This fight was a little hard to watch, not because it was overly violent but because it was literally hard to watch. Lea’s flames met with Aqua’s water based attacks and sent steam up over the field. Whenever the steam cleared a barrage of flame had the audience squinting against the light. 

“Not bad,” Lea said, parrying an attack. “Hey, let’s make a deal, winner buys ice cream.”

“What, are you low on cash or something?” Aqua laughed. 

“Are they… flirting?” Isa pondered, narrowing his eyes at the fight.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Terra said. “Aqua fights for the other faction, you know?”

“Yeah, so does Lea, that’s why I’m confused,” Isa said.

Finally the battle ended, with Lea’s keyblade flying across the field, and Aqua’s keyblade leveled at his throat. 

“... guess I still have a lot to learn, huh, master?” he chuckled. 

“It was a good effort,” Aqua replied kindly. “I saw real improvement. You really should stop by sometime for some training, your fighting style is so unique I’d love to see it honed.”

“Well, I’d be honored,” Lea said.

The referee broke up the compliment fest by announcing Aqua the winner, and so the struggle continued. 

It went on, fight after fight, some winning one round and some winning many. As it turned out Riku did not make it past Xion, though she failed to make it past Aqua, who Roxas was now facing in the final round.

“I look forward to facing you,” Aqua said graciously as they took their positions. 

“Me too,” Roxas said. “Don’t hold back!”

Roxas’s dual wield style was a fairly unique and powerful one, something Aqua had showed interest in many times. However, it still wasn’t enough to take down the seasoned master in the end. The battle lasted the longest of any of the others, to the point where people wondered if maybe it would be called a draw from exhaustion, until finally Aqua took the winning blow. 

Roxas struggled to catch his breath, accepting Aqua’s offered hand as she helped him back to his feet. She looked somewhat apologetic. After all, she knew what this meant to him. However, Roxas just smiled back at her and offered his hand back. 

“Nice fight,” he said, shaking her hand. “I can’t wait to face you again next year.”

“Yes,” Aqua said with a grin. “I’m excited for it too!”

“The winner!” The referee grabbed Aqua’s hand and raised it to the sky as the audience lost their minds cheering. Two Struggle volunteers brought over the newly made Super Struggle trophy, which Aqua accepted, graciously blushing. 

“Damn, next year for sure, kid,” Lea said, ruffling Roxas’s hair. “Sorry about that.”

“Are you kidding?” Roxas said. “That was amazing! I had so much fun, I don’t care if I didn’t win this time, I went toe to toe with a master and almost won! It was awesome!”

The other Super Struggle fighters surrounded Aqua, who until then had been surrounded by fans. One rather young fan had even managed to get her to bend down and accept a flower crown. She beamed at Terra and Ventus’s non-stop praise and excitement, and had to take a moment to stop laughing at how over the top they were before she spoke again.

“Well, we did agree winner would buy ice cream, right?” she said. 

The clocktower was a little too small for all assembled, so they sat at the bistro instead. They did have to buy drinks in order to get away with bringing in outside food and taking up seating, Scrooge McDuck was not in fact “running a charity” as he put it (though having the Super Struggle fighters at his restaurant was bringing in enough money to justify it).

Roxas found himself sitting next to Riku and Kairi, who were taking playful swipes at each other and laughing, making promises to train together more. The laughter didn’t last forever though, Roxas soon realized that while the rest of the group was still having a good time Riku and Kairi quickly fell into a sort of bittersweet silence.

The silence was broken by Kairi in the end.

“How far do you think he would have gotten?” she asked, biting into her ice cream.

“Hm, probably not past the first round,” Riku tried to joke, but his laugh faded quickly. “He would have been cheering you on the loudest when it was your turn.”

“Yeah, he’d do the same for you,” Kairi said. 

“I’m sure he saw.”

They both looked surprised to hear Roxas speaking up. He leaned back casually in his chair, and took a bite of his ice cream before speaking again.

“Him and I are still connected even if we can exist separately now,” he said. He looked Riku and Kairi in the eyes. “So I bet Sora has some idea of how cool you guys looked today, I at least did.”

“... thanks, Roxas,” Riku said, a small smile pulling at his lips as he suddenly had to look away and rub at his eyes. 

Kairi pulled Roxas into a hug, which he wasn’t really ready for, so it took a moment for him to find where to put his arms. 

“Thanks for inviting us to this,” she said after pulling away. “We needed it.”

“You can come by anytime,” Roxas said. “I mean, I’m always down for kicking Riku’s ass, if you wanna fight just bring him by.”

The three laughed, but they could tell the offer to come over whenever was genuine.

The Super Struggle celebration ended up going late into the night, and when Roxas finally fell into bed he was filled with the happy sort of exhaustion that comes from a good workout and laughing so hard your head starts to hurt. He had no trouble falling asleep, and dreaming of the next time they’d step into the Struggle ring. 

  1. Dusklings



“Dude… I think that guy is following us,” Hayner said, making a face as he peeked at their follower out of the corner of his eye. 

Roxas was quick to move to the back of the group, putting himself between his friends and whoever was about to cause them trouble. Expecting to see a person following them, he was very surprised when a familiar and very inhuman head peeked around the corner. 

“What… is that doing here?” Roxas mused.

“Isn’t that one of those things that was causing trouble awhile back?” Pence asked, putting his hands on Roxas’s head and practically pushing him over as he tried to get a better look. Roxas batted his friend away and started walking towards the corner the dusk had just retreated behind. When he noticed his friends following him he gestured for them to stay put, then turned the corner where he found a total of four dusks standing at a sort of nervous attention.

“Uh…” 

They weren’t attacking, but they weren’t doing much of anything else either. When Roxas thought of the dusks he thought of busy energy. They were always either serving as cannon fodder or running hectic errands around the castle. They’d used to make him feel a little uneasy, the idea that these low level Nobodies were once people whose hearts weren’t strong enough to hold onto their identity unnerved him and made him more than a little sad. Nowadays though, he was mostly just surprised to see them.

“Are they like, friends of yours?” Hayner asked, very close to Roxas’s ear. Roxas jumped and turned around fuming to reprimand his friends who had followed despite his advice to stay behind.

“Oh, look they’re leaving!” Olette pointed out, as the dusks seemed to scatter at the sound of strangers. They took to the sky, wiggling away in quasi-flight and disappearing over the rooftops. 

“Well, I feel like that’s going to be a problem,” Roxas sighed. 

He didn’t see the dusks again until later that day when he returned home. 

“Hey guys,” Roxas said, tossing his keys into the bowl by the door and kicking off his shoes. When his three roommates didn’t answer he looked up to where Lea, Xion, and Isa were sitting in the living room. They were staring right behind Roxas, mouths agape.

“Hm?” Roxas turned around and jumped back with a yelp as he came face to face with four silent dusks.

“Roxas, when I said you should bring your friends over sometime,” Lea joked nervously. “This is so not what I meant.”

“I don’t know what they’re doing here either!” Roxas said. “They were following me earlier, but they ran off again!”

“Interesting…” Isa stood and looked down at the dusks with his arms folded over his chest. “What are you four doing here?”

The dusks looked at each other, and then from Roxas to Isa. Though their faces couldn’t express any emotions, they seemed nervous. 

Talking to dusks was a strange experience. It was less like hearing voices and more like seeing the words in your head. Not to mention it was supposed to be a Nobody exclusive experience. Roxas figured that was why the words seemed a bit foggy and hard to make out now as the dusks answered. 

F̝͚̫̩̮̘͕̋ͪi̺̲̟̠̪͇ͩ̇̔͂̌n̞̂̈́̏d̬̠̙̙̯͋ͩ̈́̔.̺̭̏̐ͪ.̄͆̀̓ͭ. ̖̦̻̲̄ͤ́͋̾͑X͕̀͂͗̉ͬI̥̅̈́ͦ̆Ĭ̫̓̃͐͂̔I̹̩͈̓̓̈́̔ͣ̑

“Oh, shit, wait,” Lea groaned. “I know these guys. They were looking for Roxas in the data world.

“Oh, so the ones you had attack me,” Roxas said dryly. 

“I said I was sorry!” Lea replied sheepishly. “They must think the mission is still on.”

“Well, then I guess they’re your problem,” Isa said to Roxas, heading back to the couch.

“What??” Roxas groaned. “No, c’mon, help me out here!”

“They just want to help, Roxas,” Xion said, smiling at the dusks. “They’ll probably go away once they see you’re safe.”

“I’m safe right now,” Roxas told the dusks. “You don’t have to do anything, okay? Go… home?”

The dusks seemed to address each other before turning back to Roxas, not moving an inch. Roxas sighed and decided to just go to his room, becoming further dismayed when the dusks followed him.

  
  


Xion had said the dusks would probably leave once they saw Roxas was safe, but Roxas had a different idea. It seemed to him that the dusks did want to see him safe, but would never, ever, ever, EVER leave. 

When him and his friends tried skateboard tricks, the dusks were there insisting on helmets and knee pads much to the twilight trio’s amusement. When he went up to the clocktower for ice cream, they hovered nervously sometimes pulling on his collar as if to suggest he move away from the ledge. When he helped Hayner practice for the Struggle, they pinned his poor friend to the ground despite many hits with a foam bat. 

Not only that, but they seemed determined to help however they could. They cleaned the apartment, they brought Roxas ice cream when he seemed the least bit upset, and when Roxas started picking up some odd jobs for cash he found the dusks picking up half his workload. 

He didn’t find it the least bit helpful, and others were starting to get tired of his shadows too.

“It startled me!” Lea insisted, when explaining why a section of the hallway was now singed, small fires still burning here and there, while a dusk stood on the edge of the blast zone swaying back and forth. All residents were in their pajamas, sporting bedhead and exhausted looks.

“Roxas, can you tell it to stop lurking?” Lea sighed. “I swear anytime I get up during the night they zoom around behind me like some kind of horror movie monster.”

“You were never this bothered by them before,” Isa groaned, stamping out a nearby flame.

“Yeah, cause they used to listen to me!” Lea huffed. “Watch this: hey you, go fight the keyblade wielder.”

The dusk just kept swaying, seeming almost pleased with itself. 

“They only listen to Roxas,” Lea ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

“C’mon, guys,” Roxas yawned, gesturing for his bedroom. “You can… watch me sleep. Again. Totally doesn’t freak me out.”

“Guys? There’s only one of th-” Lea practically jumped into Isa’s arms as four dusks came flying down the hallway to Roxas’s room.

  
  


The next day, after the dusks repaired the once singed hallway, they made a call to the Radiant Garden research team. With Isa’s gummi phone propped up on the table and everyone save Lea on the couch in front of it, it wasn’t long before Zexion appeared on the screen.

“That is rather strange…” he mused. “Technically, their mission is complete, they should be reporting back to base… the castle, that is. I assume it houses a great deal of Nobodies without purpose now, if it still exists at all.”

“Why don’t you bring one in?” Even suggested, stepping into the frame. “I’m sure we can get to the bottom of it.”

“I dunno, they don’t really like new people,” Roxas said hesitantly.

“They’re not exactly new people, to be fair,” Lea said.

“... right,” Even said tersely. 

“Yep,” Lea edged further away from the phone looking a bit guilty. Just a bit.

As it turned out the lab was a bust. From all angles the dusks appeared completely normal, no deviations of any sort. After hours of monotonous testing, Zexion and Even concluded that it seemed like the only thing keeping them hovering around Roxas, was their own decision to. 

When they returned home, Roxas didn’t even flinch at the dusks trailing behind him in a line. 

“Well…” Xion said. “... at least you’ll never be lonely?”

“Yeah,” Roxas sighed. “I’m gonna go for a walk for a bit.”

“I’d ask if you want company, but…” Xion made a face at her own joke. 

 

At this point Roxas couldn’t even bothered to feel annoyed by how the dusks kept tabs on him from the rooftops. He knew ducking into the tunnels wouldn’t get rid of them, but he did it anyway. He could at least get away from the people if not the Nobodies.

What he wasn’t counting on, was the heartless. 

“What’s your problem?” Roxas muttered to himself as several heartless spawned around him. The dusks were quick to rush in, pushing past Roxas and putting themselves right where he was planning on swinging his keyblades. 

“No! Move out of the way!” he said, not wanting to hurt them no matter how irritating they were. 

He’d fought with minion Nobodies before, but usually his own. His samurais were connected to him, he didn’t have to keep an eye on them because both parties could sense the actions of the other. Fighting with dusks was different, it wasn’t like reaching out and moving an extension of yourself across the battlefield, you actually had to watch what you were doing. Of course, dusks were usually in such high supply that it wasn’t a big deal if you hit one, but Roxas was pretty much all about shaking off that Organization mindset these days.

So, hindered by the close quarters and the desire to not hurt the beings that seemed to dedicate their lives to helping him, Roxas soon found himself pinned by a larger heartless. His keyblades went clattering across the floor, and before he could call them back the heartless roared in his face and raised a clawed hand. 

That’s when the dusks tore in and wrapped themselves around the heartless. They pulled it off Roxas, who got to his feet panting just in time to see the heartless and the dusks do each other in. 

There was an explosion of darkness and nothing as the creatures finished each other off, and for a second Roxas was too stunned to register what had happened. Then his head was hit with a splitting pain that had him doubling over and steadying himself against the wall.

He was suddenly somewhere else.

His surroundings were different, but familiar. It was his room, his room back in the castle. It seemed strange for some reason, and it took Roxas a moment to realize he was seeing his room out of four sets of eyes. 

He was also seeing himself.

“Wait! Don’t throw those out!” he shouted, running into the room and stopping the dusks from their careful collection of the seashells spread out on the nightstand by his bed. “Sorry… I know you guys are just doing your job but these were a gift from my friend, they’re not trash.”

One of the dusks ran a tendril over one of the shells, and Roxas remembered thinking that it looked like it was admiring it. Now inside the dusk’s head, he realized he was right. They were looking at the mix of pink and orange and thinking about a sunset they couldn’t quite remember, from a place they couldn’t quite recall.

“You like that one?” the Roxas of the past asked. “Well… I do have a lot of them. You can take that one if you want.”

Roxas felt a jolt of surprise inside the dusks he was seeing through. Which was strange because before this moment the only thing the dusks seemed to feel was a distinct emptiness, a lack of purpose and feeling. 

“You can all have one, Xion and I can collect more when we finally hit the beach,” Roxas said, a cheerful smile spreading over his face. “Axel said we’d go on our next day off, but I bet he’ll just sleep in again.”

Present Roxas watched as each dusk selected a shell, and then the pain in his head was back as he found himself falling to his knees back in the tunnels beneath Twilight Town.

Laying on the ground before him, were four familiar shells. 

“What a mess…” Roxas sighed. He picked the shells up carefully, and found himself wondering if maybe now that dusk could remember where they’d seen that sunset. He hoped so at least.

 

  1. Stay Away From Those Kids



 

Xion was walking home when she noticed a little girl trying to coax her cat out of a tree. Lending her a hand was simple enough, but when she knelt down to give the cat back the girl seemed too nervous to take it. She avoided Xion’s gaze, and when Xion went to reassure her she was cut off by someone loudly approaching. 

“Hana, get over here!” a man said, deftly grabbing his daughter and pulling her away. “I told you not to go near them.”

Xion let go of the cat, who raced back to its owner’s side. 

“What… was that?” she wondered, a sick feeling growing in her stomach.

Right at that moment, across town, Roxas was walking home when a woman struggling with her groceries passed by. She almost lost a bag, which Roxas was quick to grab and lift back into her arms.

“You need help with those?” he asked. 

“Oh, why tha-” the woman started to say, but when she saw Roxas she quickly took a step back. “Oh, no, no, I’m fine thank you.”

Roxas was confused by her response but not entirely unfamiliar with it. Though, last time someone reacted to him like that he was in a datascape being accused of stealing photos. What rumors were spreading about him this time?

 

“Are we… scary?” Xion asked one night, breaking the silence as the members of the household wound down for the night. Lea closed the fridge and gave her a confused look, and Isa and Roxas turned off the tv to look her way as well.

“What makes you ask that?” Isa asked.

“A lot of people in town lately have…” Xion paused. “I go to make friends, and everything seems okay. Then they stop talking to me, and when I try to figure out why they avoid me, and then I hear from someone else that their parents said they weren’t allowed to hang out with me anymore.”

Lea swore, his grip on the soda he’d just retrieved tightening. 

“Yeah, I get a lot of that too,” Roxas said. “I mean, lots of people really like us but lots of people really don’t too.”

“I started to figure it out after awhile,” Xion said. “I mean, we’re Nobodies and replicas. We still give off that aura of ‘this should not exist,’ we don’t have belly buttons, our eyes glow a little in the dark, we have magic and weapons… we look dangerous… maybe even like monsters...”

Roxas nodded, drawing his legs up to his chest and resting his chin on his knees. 

“That’s bullshit,” Lea huffed. “These people have seen walking talking ducks, dogs, and mice, not to mention they’ve seen real monsters like the heartless! What business do they have being scared of a couple of sixteen year olds who bare-”

“Lea,” Isa hissed warningly, and Lea realized the soda he was holding had started to boil, the plastic melting in his hand in a way that would have been painful were he not used to burns. He set the soda down on the counter and let Isa pull his hand over to the sink to run it under cold water. It would be fine in a day, he didn’t get burned at all when he was paying attention. It was only angry fire like this that could leave a scar on him, like the scars on his forearms or the back of his neck. 

“I’m not wrong though,” he said. 

“That doesn’t mean you should work yourself into a self destructive anger in front of them,” Isa whispered. 

“Whatever, though, right?” Roxas stood up and shrugged. “It’s not like we’re not used to it. All that hiding in the shadows stuff we had to do with the Organization, it was for a reason. We unsettle people, big deal. We’ve got friends, and they don’t care so I don’t care.”

Xion seemed only slightly convinced by this, but when Roxas invited her to come play video games with him in his room she cheered up a little more, remarking that a distraction is just what she needed. 

Later that night, as he was getting ready for bed, Lea took a long look in the mirror. He was human again, but it was all too easy to see the features that had once been there. 

Piercing green eyes with a sickly glow, an angular slightly inhuman form, the marks under his eyes right under prominent dark circles.

He was still fuming when he made his way back to the bedroom. 

“Here we were thinking this was a nice town,” Isa said, watching Lea storm over to the bed as he changed into pajamas. When his comment got no answer he kept talking. “Roxas was right, they have friends who will be there for them, and these friends who have to obey their parents will grow up and hopefully not mirror their hatred. They could reconnect later.”

Lea just glared up at the ceiling, so Isa slid into the bed next to him and kept up their one-sided conversation.

“We’ll just have to see about getting the others out here more often,” he said. “Maybe we could take them to the beach tomorrow? To see Riku, Kairi, and Naminé?”

“It’s just it doesn’t even make sense,” Lea finally said. “Of all the things to scare someone off, something they can’t control… something they were made to be…”

“Lea.” Isa cupped Lea’s face in one hand.

Lea rolled his eyes, trying to ignore how quickly he shut up and calmed down at that. “... hate it when you do that.”

Isa started playing with Lea’s hair, and Lea leaned into it until he was laying on Isa’s chest. 

“I’d understand it if they were really doing bad things,” Lea said, his voice slightly pained. “But they’re not. They’re good kids. There’s no reason to make them feel that way.”

“Why should we care about the reasons of cruel people?” Isa huffed. “We just make sure Roxas and Xion know they’re cared for, and that there’s nothing wrong with them. We can’t stop people from being ridiculous but we can at least give them what they need to deal with it when it happens.”

“When did you stop being emotionally stunted and grow a therapy brain?” Lea teased, earning himself a pillow to the face.

He was right though. Lea resolved to be calmer in the morning, to actually talk to Roxas and Xion instead of just blowing up. He’d probably just get all awkward and buy them ice cream and then hug them instead of talking about the real issues but that seemed to work in the past. 

As they lay in the dark, Isa pushed Lea’s hair aside and kissed the scars on the back of his neck. Lea shivered, and felt a little bit braver.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof I got a little bit projecty during that last one, what with growing up as a queer kid in a conservative town and having all my friends vanish on me cause their parents said I was dangerous. I actually deleted a whole lot of projection tbh, I hope the revised version isn't as hard to read as my super emotional vent version was. 
> 
> Remember if you have a suggestion for a topic you want covered you can leave it in a comment or shoot me an ask on my tumblr!


End file.
